If there's something wrong with your website, you can drive so much traffic away and not even realise it. Let's say that 100 people try to make use of a resource that you have mis-labelled. Only 10 will actually find it, and of those only 1 will take the time to email and let you know.
How can I be sure of these statistics? I can't .... but I do know that a high proportion of traffic gets lost when something goes wrong, and that only a tiny proportion of people who still get through but with difficulty will actually write and let you know. This "square rule" makes all feedback received rather special and valuable.
I was reminded on this overnight - a new user to our forum had signed up using an email address which implied to me that any administration emails weren't going to be read. I wrote him a note (in the circumstances via the public board!) asking him to make amends; to my (I confess) surprise, he did reply - observing that no-one else had ever actually looked at it before. I'm going to disagree with his observation. I'm guessing that the majority haven't looked, but that a minority have. Of that minority, the majority have just rolled their eyes / deleted his posts / taken no further action. And I'm, it seems, the only one who has gotten back to him. He probably doesn't realise that he's alienated an "on the ball" minority. (written 2004-11-22, updated 2006-06-05)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service [72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)
[91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)
[150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
[189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
[195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
[233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
[265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
[327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)
[350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
[393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
[440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
[482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
[552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)
[566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
[569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)
[609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)
[621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
[628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
[650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
[717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
[725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
[841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
[852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
[944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
[961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
[966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
[1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
[1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
[1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
[1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
[1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
[1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
[1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
[1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
[1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
[1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
[1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
[2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
[2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
[2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
[2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
[2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
[2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
[2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
[2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
[2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)
[2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)
[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
[3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
[3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)
[3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)
[3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
[3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)
[3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)
[4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)
[4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)
[4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)
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